


Picture This

by hungrytiger11 (hungrytiger)



Series: A Rose Bloomed [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: A Rpse Bloomed, Childhood, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-04-19
Updated: 2009-04-19
Packaged: 2017-10-07 11:55:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/64925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hungrytiger/pseuds/hungrytiger11
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He never smiled in pictures, and hadn't meant to in this one either. A little blonde girl made him do it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Picture This

Finally getting a moment to herself, Yoshino collapsed on to the couch and groaned at the sight of photos everywhere. Of course, as a photographer, it was natural that photos were everywhere. Photos were her life. Tripods, flashes, different cameras, and lens all littered the house along with dulled kunai and old reports to the Hokage. Random sets of negatives might be found weeks later in a book, where Shikaku had obviously used them as bookmarks. Photos everywhere were the status quo at the Nara household. But, Yoshino thought to herself, this was a bit more everywhere than was usual, for even her.  
Piling up. That's what it was all doing. She'd spent all day in the darkroom catching up making prints, and as much as she loved her darkroom, she most certainly did not enjoy feeling as if the stink of chemicals pervaded her very being, nor did she enjoy Shikaku's remarking on it. What was worse was there was still so much more to get done the next day!

"Troublesome," she grumbled to herself, repeating her husband and son's favorite phrase. She picked up a pen and the nearest print, writing out the date and names of the subjects. The house needed to be clean, and if it was going to get done, it was going to be her who did it. Goodness knew, Shikaku wouldn't. Of course, years ago she had forbade him from ever so much as touching any of her photographic equipment, so it wasn't like there was much he could do any way. But as far as Yoshino was concerned that was entirely beside the point!

Her hand stopped on a pile of class photos she'd taken earlier that week.

_"Smile!" A flash went off, and Yoshino repressed a sigh. Predictably, about four kids most definitely did not smile. Their scowling features had glared back at her, as if getting a class photograph was some heinous torture not even Ibiki-san from the I&amp;T would dare use! Likewise, about the same amount of students goofed off when the shot was taken. Hands were forming rabbit ears behind unsuspecting friends, or pushing or shoving any nearby people. Kami, it was times like Kohona Academy's Class Picture Day that seriously had her reconsidering becoming a photographer. Or a parent. Well, Yoshino amended to herself, maybe not a parent. She never for a second regretted that. Now, if one of the little monsters were her children, then she might, but Shikamaru, for all that he was one of the laziest people she'd ever met, even if he was only five, was well-behaved. Probably, he thought it was too much trouble to misbehave._

_"Okay, Iruka-sensei!" She beamed over at the young teacher. "That takes care of all the Ninja Academy students! Who's next?"_

_The pony tailed man smiled back wearily at her. Being the newest teacher, he'd been saddled with corralling each class as they came to be photographed. " Oh, just the Kindernins, left then!" _

_Yoshino felt her smile falter. " Th-that's still half the classes then."_

_"Well, no. Not quite, but it feels like it sometimes." Iruka grumbled, turning towards the door to go collect the first batch of five years olds. The Ninja Academy didn't officially let students choose if they wanted to enroll as Nins-in-training or as regular students till they turned seven. Till then, all students had the same schooling. It was mostly good, allowing time to evaluate potential before any decision was reached. Of course, the downside was, while the graduating ninja classes would generally be less than twenty, and those who passed their genin tests with their new teams was even less, the number of kindergarteners was huge. This year, she knew, there were almost eighty newly enrolled into school. That made four separate classes at least. _

_Yoshino sighed and strained to find a bushy bundle of hair poking out above the hordes Iruka was sending her way. Maybe she'd get to see her son, at least…._

Her fingers grazed over another shot, buried under the first. It was less professional looking, but the expressions were definitely more heartfelt than those in the class photos had been. Smiling up at her were the faces of Shikamaru and Ino-chan on their first day of school. Getting Shikamaru to smile in pictures was near impossible, and truthfully, he hadn't meant to for this one either. A little blonde girl had made him do it.

Ino had been an emotional train wreck the entire week leading up to their very first day of school. Alternatively excited, and nervous, she'd rush around the house, beginning things and then abandoning them halfway through, and always asking a million questions.

_"Yoshino-san, what will we eat at school?"_

_"Yoshino-san, teachers won't be mean, will they?"_

_"Yoshino-san, what if Dad comes back but can't find me, cause he doesn't know I'm at school?"_

Her own son, Shikamaru, would trail along after her like a puppy. He never said a word about school at all, and he rarely joined Ino-chan in whatever she was doing while flitting about from room to room. So long as he was in the same room, he seemed content enough. Of course, Yoshino reminded herself, that was hardly a new development. He'd been that way for nearly eight months, ever since he'd met the girl.

Nights had been worse. Strung out from so much nervous energy, the little girl tended to get over tired by sundown. Moods would shift from nervous to upset. She cried more often for her father on those nights, more than she had since first coming to live with them. On those nights, the little Yamanaka only seemed to stop crying for the Nara men. Shikaku would gravely pull her into his lap, letting the small, tear-faced child trace his scars. The scene, though it seemed to calm Ino-chan down, always jarred Yoshino's nerves; she much preferred Shikamaru's methods to her husband's.

She couldn't even say what exactly Shikamaru did to calm her. He seemed to instinctively know when the little girl was going to start crying. Then, awkward as could be, and acting as though it was a big nuisance, he's walk over and murmur things to her, and maybe offers his favorite stuffed toy (a deer creatively named Deer). Then he'd let her lie on him, hug him, hit him, and even yell at him. He never quite reciprocated the action, but he never outright rejected any such acts either. It was like he just knew what she needed to let out her pent-up fears and each time, without fail, Ino stopped crying.

Knowing all this, she'd bribed the administrator-nin into ensuring the two would be in the same class. It would be easier that way. Inoishi, responsible parent that he was, had left no word about when he would return, and presumably Ino-chan would be living with them for the near future. Might as well make it easier to drop off and pick up kids at school.

The transition to their household had not always been smooth, but Yoshino loved having the girl there. She was just the sort of person that everyone, young or old, man or woman, fell in love with, just a little bit. Her son seemed to be both the one expectation to this rule and the best example for it. Best friends and worse enemies, it was a good thing Shikamaru was too young to truly get hurt. Or mostly too young at any rate. Yoshino smiled, thinking of what had happened just before taking this snapshot to cause the look on her son's face.

_Yoshino and Ino-chan stood, waiting impatiently to take picture of the new students with their backpacks and bentos before they walked over to school. True to form, as ever when a camera was around, Shikamaru was nowhere to be found. It would figure. He'd probably stroll up just when there was maybe enough time to make it to the school, but not enough for any snapshot. That sort of thing would appeal to both his laziness and strategic nature. It was like he thought capturing important moments (like the first day of school) wasn't important or something._

_When she saw her son shuffle up to them from the direction of, not the house, but the deer fields, it threw her. Even more confusing was what he held. Clenched between a fist, were wildflowers- daisies, baby's breath and even some of those wild roses that grew on the far side of their land._

_"Here," he'd muttered, shoving them at the little girl. Before he could make a move, Ino-chan had grabbed at the flowers, flung her arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek. She'd missed the kiss, but Yoshino had caught on film the beet-red face of her son a minute later, wiping his cheek with his sleeve, but smiling, as he stared at the blonde waving her little bouquet about. _

Inoishi really was a lousy father, Yoshino thought, laughing a little to herself, what with missing both his kid's first day of school and her first kiss. Well, okay, it really wasn't funny, especially since he'd since missed the kids' birthdays too, -except for the fact it _really_ was. Inoishi would have loved to play the role of an over-dramatic, soap-opera-like, overbearing father in the face of his daughter's first kiss. And he'd missed it in the name of a mission. It was moments like those that made her glad she'd retired from being a ninja. How could one stand being away on missions, if one had to miss moments like that, watching your son's serious face as he hands out flowers, listening to his serious, little voice muttering, " These are for you, since you were scared. But it's okay. I'll be there." Moments like those were too precious to miss.

It was enough to make a mother's heart break, realizing how in five years your child has grown. Yoshino sighed, and went back to sorting. The years were going by so fast; she needed those photographic memories more than ever now.


End file.
